Hibiscus Tea and Poppy Seed Shortbread

Hibiscus Tea and Poppy Seed Shortbread

Last week I bought a tin of hibiscus tea, and the moment I looked into my first freshly brewed cup, I knew it was destined to be a star ingredient in something sweet!

I recently read that infusing loose tea with butter creates a strong flavor for use in baked goods. So, my first order of business - make hibiscus tea butter. It was so easy and turned out beautifully! It's hard to explain, but there was something very special about preparing the tea butter. I immediately wanted to use as much of it as possible. My first thought - shortbread.

As I mixed the magenta-hued butter into sugar and flour, I witnessed a magical color transformation from bright pink-red to purple. This kind of surprise is the best kind of surprise.

Now, in theory this steeping method should work with just about any tea, but I can only vouch for Republic of Tea's Natural Hibiscus Superflower in bags. Since I didn't purchase the loose tea, I just opened the tea bags and poured the contents into a 1/4 cup measure. I can't wait to try this method with an Earl Grey and varieties of my new favorite brand of tea- Kusmi.

A couple of happenings:

I'm so excited to be featured in Country Woman's "Blog and Crafter Spotlight". For those Country Woman Magazine subscribers, look for one of my recipes in their June/July issue.

Amazon is shipping my book early! Holy wow. So many people already have their copy and I've been receiving so many kind messages about it. I'm very grateful to those supporting my fun and unconventional baking book.

I really love the raspberry-rhubarb scent that the tea butter gave the cookie, and the poppy seeds give it a subtle texture.

Place butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. When butter begins to melt and pool in the bottom of the saucepan, pour in the loose tea. Stir occasionally. When butter is completely melted and mixture is hot, remove from heat source. Allow the tea to steep for several minutes until it is a bright, red-pink.

Place a large sieve over a bowl and line the sieve with a tea towel (one that you don’t mind getting stained). Pour melted tea butter through the towel-lined sieve and let stand for a few minutes. Gather the towel together at the top and squeeze out as much of the melted butter as possible (you may want to use gloves, as this tea will stain hands).

Place bowl of melted butter in the refrigerator until partially firm, then stir until the butter is a consistent color. Cover and keep refrigerated until ready for use. The shortbread cookie recipe requires one pound of tea butter, be sure to measure it out before you begin making the cookies. You will have a small amount of tea butter left over.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.

Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until incorporated.

Add the vanilla extract and mix again.

Add 2 cups of the flour and salt and mix on low speed until crumbly. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix again on low speed. Stir in the poppy seeds on the lowest mixer setting. Mixture will be crumbly. Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time until a stiff dough forms. Dough should not be sticky.

Gather the dough together with your hands and place on parchment paper. Divide into two pieces. Roll each piece of dough between sheets of parchment until flattened to about a 1-inch thickness.

Wrap the dough in plastic film and place the pieces on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. This dough will firm up quickly because of the high butter content.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

While it’s still cold, roll out the dough to a ¼-inch thickness. If the dough is difficult to roll, let it stand at room temperature for a few minutes until it is pliable. Use rolling-pin guide bands for evenly rolled shortbread.

Cut the dough into desired shapes and place them on cookie sheets spaced 1 ½ inches apart. Sprinkle cut-outs with extra poppy seeds. Transfer the pans of cut-outs to the freezer and chill until frozen solid. This will help the cut-outs keep their shape while baking. Remove pans from freezer and bake until fragrant:

• 7 to 10 minutes for small cookies
• 12 to 15 minutes for medium cookies
• 17 to 20 minutes for large cookies

This is amazing, I feel like making butter with tea all over the place right now! Your images are so beautiful and decadent! Thank you for sharing. Incredible! (And that purple colour - a wonderful surprise!)

I've played around with plenty of shortbread flavors, including tea, but have never thought to alter the cookie color as well. Clever - now I just have to start liking fruity teas enough to purchase some:)

Wow these look amazing. Thank you the inpsiring idea. I have some loose hibiscus tea and every time I have a cup I think there must be some way of using it in baking. I'm definitely going to give these a try especially as purple is my favourite colour :)

congrats on the article, i will go read later....as for the shortbread, wow.i love steeping, i mean its a lot of work but the flavor that comes later is worth it.this is how i feel when i make batches of raspberry coulis in the summer--my favorite.

Ok, these look thoroughly amazing! My first thought--a very weird one--was that I must make these for my friends' holiday cookie exchange in about eight months. What? They'll clearly knock everyone's socks off! Of course I must try them in the much nearer future as well. :)

in one of your pictures it looks like you are squeezing someone's heart and it is dripping blod. whaaaat? just kidding heather your cookies look fantastic and friendly. i wonder what i read these days to get such gruesome thoughts in my mind... im sorry. :)

These look great! Would love to pair them with some other shortbreads (green tea, earl grey, chocolate and regular). In DC there is a place called Teaism that sells a trio of shortbreads (green tea, choc, earl).

And a shout out for the new book. It's fabulous!!! Congratulations and thanks for writing it (and taking such great photos)!

Oh no way, I've never seen anything like this! Now that I have read your helpful tip about infusing butter with tea, I'm definitely going to try it. I drink hot tea literally every day (even in the summer months) and have never tried hibiscus, so your post has given me all sorts of inspiration to try new things. The shortbread looks awesome; looking forward to trying it!

Wow! I love this! I was trying to think of a way to incorporate my mom's favorite tea into a sweet treat for Mother's day - and I have been craving shortbread too - why couldn't I bring these two together?? Thanks so so much! Adorable cookies, and lovely idea!

These are so beautiful and I love how the hibiscus turns the cookies such a lovely shade of purple. I had no idea hibiscus could do this, so very impressed. I am featuring this post in today's Friday Food Fetish roundup (with a link-back and attribution), but please let me know if you have any objections. As always, it's a pleasure to be following your creations…

My church has had a Lavender Ladies' Luncheon fo at least 55 years for the ladies seventy and over in our community.I will have to try these and hopefully share them with the women that plan it.I hope the poppy seed is optional because many of the women cannot have them-including my dear mother- in-law who remembers working at these luncheons as a young matron and now attends them.Mary Cay at marycmartin@hotmail.com

These are so beautiful and I can only imagine how delightful they must taste! I've made an earl grey shortbread before that actually used the tea leaves, but I love the idea of flavouring the butter. I look forward to giving this a try very soon!

Wow, I don't even know what to say. These are gorgeous! I've never heard of flavoring butter with tea, but I now MUST try it. I bet it would give a wonderful subtle flavor to the baked goods. Definitely pinning this one!

These are gorgeous and I can only imagine the taste!?! Heather, Everything you touch transforms into beauty:) Congrats on your exceptional book and your magazine feature! I can't wait to post some of your recipes:)

How strange! Getting my weekly sprinkle bakes fix, saw this awesome post, and i was surprised;I was in Bali, Indonesia this week, and i attended a Balinese cooking class where we made traditional hibiscus tea - and it was so good! :D It was just a couple of red/pink hibiscus flowers (stamens and stems removed) stirred into a cup of hot water, which turned the liquid a blackish/purple colour (interestingly!). Then we added a spoonful of lime juice (lemon is fine also) and it immediately changed into a bright pink colour. Add some palm sugar/honey if you like, and thats it! Way easy, but FRIGGN' TASTY!!! :) sweet as post! will definitely try the butter! ;)

oh my good.... i just can say... aggggg (like homer simpson). I love your blog.... great job!!! here is mine, take a look if you like... and sorry for my english!! kisseshttp://losmundosdenina.blogspot.com.es/

I've tried your recipe several times, and it is absolutely delicious! The only difference I had was in the tea I used - I mixed Organic Fairtrade Rosehip Hibiscus Tea as well as a few bags of Starbucks/Tazo Passion Tea. My cookies did not turn out purple, unfortunately - more of a fishy gray color with golden edges...but they were sweet and tart and delicious.

Thank you so much for your recipes! They are really inspiring!I would like to ask you if it is possible for you to write the ingredients also in grams. I live in Italy and i'm not really able to convert in european measurements!Thanks again for your beautifull site!